Author(s)

S. A. Neshaei, M. K. Abadi, R. Vahedzadegan

Abstract

Water level fluctuation in concrete dams can have a significant effect on stress-strain behavior at different locations in the body of such structures. This effect is more pronounced when earthquake induced forces are present. Sefid-Rud dam, which is located in the northern part of Iran, has suffered from progressive crack development during the earthquake which occurred in that region in 1990. Creation of a longitudinal crack near the normal water level of the mentioned concrete dam while the reservoir was full has occurred. In this paper, using the data of the Rudbar-Manjil earthquake, the behavior of Sefid-Rud dam is modelled numerically. The relation between the water level and dimension of the crack is empirically estimated and verified using the real field measurements indicating a good agreement. Following the dynamical analysis of Sefid-Rud dam, the stress-strain counters are achieved indicating the critical points in the cross section of the concrete dam. Based on these results the location and dimensions of possible cracks are estimated and compared with the measured data available after the mentioned earthquake. The results are encouraging for further development of the proposed model to predict the location and estimate the dimension of progressive cracks in such conditions when the seismic forces due to earthquakes exist.

Keywords

Sefid-Rud dam, elasto-plastic, dynamic analysis, reservoir water level, stress-strain curve, crack